Atlanta - Tree Canopy

Tree Canopy

For a sprawling city with the nation's ninth-largest metro area, Atlanta is surprisingly lush with trees—magnolias, dogwoods, Southern pines, and magnificent oaks.

Atlanta has a reputation as the "city in a forest" due to an abundance of trees that is unique among major cities. The city’s main street is named after a tree, and beyond the Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead business districts, the skyline gives way to a dense canopy of woods that spreads into the suburbs. The city is home to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, an annual arts and crafts festival held one weekend during early April, when the native dogwoods are in bloom. However, the nickname is also factually accurate, as the city’s tree coverage percentage is at 36%, the highest out of all major American cities, and above the national average of 27%. Atlanta’s tree coverage does not go unnoticed—it was the main reason cited by ‘‘National Geographic’’ in naming Atlanta a "Place of a Lifetime."

The city’s lush tree canopy, which filters out pollutants and cools sidewalks and buildings, has increasingly been under assault from man and nature due to heavy rains, drought, aged forests, new pests, and urban construction. A 2001 study found that Atlanta’s heavy tree cover declined from 48% in 1974 to 38% in 1996. However, the problem is being addressed by community organizations and city government: Trees Atlanta, a non-profit organization founded in 1985, has planted and distributed over 75,000 shade trees in the city, while Atlanta’s government has awarded $130,000 in grants to neighborhood groups to plant trees.